Undiscovered Scotland: The Ultimate Online Guide

Henry Home, Lord Kames, lived from 1696 to 27 December 1782. He was
a philosopher, lawyer and judge who became a leading force in the
Scottish
Enlightenment. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our
Historical Timeline.

Henry Home, Lord Kames was born at Kames in
Berwickshire, the son of
George Home of Kames. Until he was 16 he was tutored at home. In 1712, at the
age of 18, he was apprenticed to a Writer to the Signet (an eminent solicitor)
in Edinburgh. In 1723,
following a chance meeting with Sir Hew Dalrymple, president of the court of
session, Home became a trainee advocate. He was called to the bar the following
year.

After pursuing a successful career as an advocate, Henry Home was
raised to the bench, in other words appointed to be a judge, in 1752: thus
acquiring the title of Lord Kames. Home had a powerful ally within the Scottish
government in the shape of the Duke of Argyll, and with his support became Lord
of Justiciary in 1763. Perhaps his most notable contribution to Scottish life
as a judge was as part of a panel in the Joseph Knight case, which ruled that
there could be no slavery in Scotland.

Lord Kames is remembered less as an advocate and judge than as a
driving force behind the intellectual revolution that swept Scotland during his
lifetime, the Scottish
Enlightenment. His contribution was twofold. He was recognised as a
powerful thinker in his own right, making valuable contributions in a wide
range of subjects. He is best remembered for his three volume
Elements of Criticism, published in 1762, which
would serve as a standard textbook for rhetoric and literary criticism for a
century, in the United States as well as in Britain. Other publications ranged
across the areas of religion, moral philosophy, law and agriculture. He also
wrote about the history of civilisation in a way that would lead directly to
the development of the subjects of anthropology and sociology.

Lord Kames also furthered the
Enlightenment by
supporting the careers of a number of other outstanding thinkers of his day. As
a result of his influence, Adam Smith, John
Millar and Thomas Reid all obtained
university professorships: though he was less successful in his support of
David Hume. In his private life, Henry Home was
married to Agatha Drummond, and they had two children, George and Jean
Home.